Tornadic winds knocked nearly four dozen train cars off a track in North Dakota, part of a storm system that spurred reports of five tornadoes across the Dakotas.

BNSF Railway spokesperson Kendall Sloan said a train was stopped due to a tornado warning Wednesday night near the town of Steele, North Dakota, when high winds caused 43 empty coal cars to derail.

No one was hurt, and no hazardous materials were in the cars, Sloan said in an email. BNSF cleanup crews were at the site on Thursday.

The National Weather Service in Bismarck, North Dakota, confirmed on Thursday that a tornado touched down near Steele around 8 p.m. Wednesday. The agency said another tornado touched down at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday southwest of Selfridge, North Dakota, on the Standing Rock Tribal Nation.

The weather service said three potential tornadoes also were reported in north-central South Dakota on Wednesday night. No injuries were reported. Survey crews were still working to confirm in damage in South Dakota was from tornadoes.

While bad weather was generally moving out of the Dakotas, severe thunderstorms were possible Thursday in Minnesota and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, the weather service said.

It’s all in front of Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes in their opener Thursday night.

They roll into their clash with North Dakota State as 10-point favorites on Fanatics Sportsbook and are massive -375 favorites to win outright.

The Division I AA school has actually produced two top draft picks in the NFL, Carson Wentz and Trey Lance, while also seeing Easton Stick get into the league.

There is no top prospect awaiting the Buffaloes on Thursday, though.

North Dakota State bizarrely runs a two-quarterback system, led by passing quarterback Cam Miller and supported by Cole Payton, who plays a role similar to Taysom Hill of the Saints.

We’re going to target a first-half bet against the spread.

Colorado vs. North Dakota State prediction

Colorado should heavily rely on its defensive line this season.

The Buffaloes’ defensive front profiled as one of the best in college football last year, and overall return nine of their 11 key contributors.

Colorado will need to improve its tackling and run defense to take a step forward this year, but that continuity and a retooled roster littered with transfers should led to an improved football team after last year’s 4-8 disappointment that featured several collapses in close games.

Offensively, Colorado will need much better play from its offensive line to protect star quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Thursday’s game should be his showcase performance that could vault him to early Heisman Trophy contention.

North Dakota’s defense, particularly their secondary, is abysmal.

Betting on College Football?

Two-way star Travis Hunter could also take a leap forward as a receiver. He’s among the best at the position and also shines on defense as a lockdown cornerback.

The Buffaloes should eventually pull away in this one, but the defense could have its hands full dealing with two different looks and completely opposite offenses.

In-game management isn’t exactly Coach Prime’s strong suit.

Back North Dakota State to keep it close in the first half, but it’s anyone’s guess how this one plays out in the second half.

PICK: North Dakota State first half spread +7.5 (-160, Fanatics)

Grid lines were laid out for a potential fossil dig at a home in northwest North Dakota. Mammoth teeth were found 1988 while preparing the site for the construction of the garage at the right. (Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Geological Survey via the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) -Some mammoth bones have been gnawing at North Dakota State Geologist Ed Murphy for more than 35 years.

Murphy on Tuesday described for the North Dakota Industrial Commission how he became aware of a find of mammoth bones in 1988. He updated the commission, which oversees the North Dakota Geological Survey, because his department, in cooperation with the State Historical Society, plans to excavate part of the site and may need to request money from the state to finish the job.

In 1988, Murphy said he received a report of a homeowner finding some woolly mammoth bones while digging a foundation for a garage in northwest North Dakota. Murphy did not disclose a more precise location of the find.

The family had already sent a couple of teeth to North Dakota State University to verify that they had come from a woolly mammoth, prehistoric beasts that lived in what is now North Dakota during the Pleistocene Epoch, commonly called the Ice Age.

Weeks later, word got to Murphy that teeth had been confirmed as coming from a mammoth and he went to the site the next day. But by this time, the foundation had been poured and the garage built.

Murphy said he asked the homeowner if he would be willing to have the garage moved and foundation busted up so there could be an archeological dig. Murphy said the homeowner was willing, as long as the garage was restored the next month.

But Murphy was not able to find the people or the money to make that happen.

In December, 35 years later, Murphy started going through his notes from that visit. After the holidays, he contacted the person who now owns the home and attached garage.

While the property had changed hands, the new owner knew people from the garage construction crew, who had shared that there may be a mammoth under the garage.

So it was not a big surprise when Murphy reached out. The homeowner agreed to a test dig near the garage. Murphy said the small pit revealed some bone fragments and pieces of tusk in the backfill for the garage slab. Digging a little deeper revealed three undisturbed bones.

Margaret Patton, a research archaeologist with the Historical Society, also used ground-penetrating radar at the site.

“It doesn’t make beautiful pictures,” Patton said of the radar, but it does detect anomalies, something different from the soil around it, that corresponded to where construction workers had reported bones being found.

Murphy said a crew will return to the garage for a larger dig — about 6 feet by 6 feet and down at least 30 inches — in mid-September.

“If they uncover a big rock, I’ll be sad, but I’m hoping that it really will be bigger mammoth bones,” Patton said.

Patton said the September dig should provide a better idea of the potential for the site and the potential cost. There may need to be a budget request for the Legislature when it meets in January so work can continue into 2025.

While there have been woolly mammoth tusks and other bones found in the state, “a skeleton or a nearly full skeleton would be a first” for North Dakota, Murphy said.

Several species of mammoth lived in North America, including the woolly mammoth and the Columbian mammoth, according to the North Dakota Geological Survey. They lived alongside other animals like saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths before going extinct in the area about 10,000 years ago.

In 2023, coal miners near Beulah discovered a 7-foot tusk of an ancient mammoth.

“There we had a beautiful tusk that was really in great shape,” Murphy said. In addition, 18 other bones or parts of bones were found.

Murphy said fossil bones like the tusk are soft and need to be encased in plaster to be safely removed. Then it’s a monthslong process to stabilize the fossil.

Murphy said he is hopeful for the new dig site, but there are no guarantees.

“It still will be a gamble of what’s under there,” he said.